LAHORE, April 14: The Lahore High Court Bar Association on Saturday withheld its proposed resolution at the eleventh hour against the ‘conduct’ of the LHC chief justice while convicting Advocate M D Tahir of contempt charges after the CJ vowed to revoke the conviction.

LHCBA President Hafiz Abdul Rahman Ansari had convened a general house meeting to pass a resolution against the CJ’s decision to award six-month imprisonment to M D Tahir on Friday last for allegedly passing derogatory remarks against court. The Bar association called the conviction a ‘direct confrontation’ between the Bar and Bench because the CJ did not entertain its request to revoke the sentence, and it had to move the Supreme Court which suspended the sentence till April 18.

However, just before start of the meeting at 10:15am, the CJ summoned the LHCBA president and other members to his chamber through Bar former president Jehangir Ashraf Wahla. After the meeting, the Bar officials claimed that the CJ had promised to revoke the sentence according to the LHCBA’s wishes.

Later, Mr Ansari told the participants that the Bar association would move an application before the LHC for the revocation of the sentence. He claimed that he had told the CJ that the matter could have been resolved on Friday, if he had shown flexibility on the issue.

“We do not want any confrontation with the judiciary and hope that the CJ will honour his words,” the LHCBA president said, adding that the Bar’s dignity was supreme. He pledged that the Bar would reciprocate the CJ’s gesture.

Before the meeting, the lawyers were divided into two groups over the issue. A group, headed by Senator Dr Khalid Ranjha, supported the Punjab Advocate-General’s office law officers and some senior lawyers, saying that no such resolution should be tabled, as it would lead to a clash between the Bar and the judiciary.

“We will foil any attempt to pass such resolution and create a pandemonium, if Mr Ansari does not withhold the resolution,” said a lawyer, who believed that the CJ had done the right thing by convicting M D Tahir.

The other faction, patronized by the LHCBA president, was keen on passing the resolution against the CJ on the grounds that he did not consider the Bar’s request to revoke the sentence. At this point, the CJ summoned the LHCBA president, and the meeting was adjourned for an hour.

However, things settled down immediately, as Mr Ansari announced after the meeting that the CJ had assured of his cooperation with the Bar in revoking the sentence.

Mr Ranjha was on the LHC premises during the meeting and left after Mr Ansari’s talk.